Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, JULY 6, 1939. TWO-WAY AGGRESSION.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 July 1939, Page 6

Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, JULY 6, 1939. TWO-WAY AGGRESSION.

IT has been reported on various occasions, whei ? 1 Ins made public and ceremonial appearances in Beilin and else where* that his route of passage has been guarded by do ble rows of troops. Armed men, that is to say, m back to back, one line watching the erow *? e . fl f ie keeps watch and ward over the roadway. 11 1 is isl e cns tomarv method of guarding the Fuehrer, it is one I that a tvpifies his rule over Germany. The desire of the Nazi ship to gain its way in externa] affairs byHice:> () ‘ of force, is tending at present to monopoliseatten ion bn t should never be forgotten that in its foreign pcthey the I t atm ship is pursuing or attempting to pursue the self-same method, as it has already applied at home. No fact is better established Ilian that the Nazi dictatorship and its supporters are not the representatives, but the conquerors of the German people. Herr Hitler owes position he now occupies not to any inspiration ol leadeisl p in the true sense of that noble word, but to an adm ttedly clever use of two weapons—for<?e and guile, the last inelucl a free use of deceptions as unscrupulous as have ever been practised in human, history. The storv of Hitler’s conquest of power, and incidental W of Germany is freelv available to all who care to_ read it. His achievement falls into two broad divisions. ith I,] p art he made himself first the indispensable senant, and ultimately the master, of powerful organised interests in Germany —the* oreatest of these being the military clique which cm Reichswehr—the German Army At the same time he exhibited in a supreme degree the arts ol the demagogue in <-ainin-’ the support, not of the German people, but that of sections of the nation whose allegiance enabled him Io dominate the nation as a. whole. It is on record that shortly after the Great War, the popular appeal of the man who was to become the supreme ruler of Germany was addressed to the lower middle c asses, menaced by inflation, and to a lesser extent to the workmen. In those days, Hitler and his party promised that the big stoics would be confiscated and their premises let out to small tradespeople. It was promised also that “the thraldom of interest would be abolished. The workers were promised the nationalisation of the great trusts. Like the programme ol agraimn relief daivded later before the farmers, who had been neglected while thev were prosperous, these promises became dishonoured scraps of paper. They served their temporary purpose, but no attempt was ever made to carry them out. The one compact Hitler has steadfastly honoured is that into which he entered with the surviving and still potent representatives of German militarism. The story ol Nazi rule in Germanv is that of an orderly but remorseless dragooning of the whole nation in the service of militarism. As n result, the world is now threatened-with a catastrophe ol war, and nil the bluff of Nazi propaganda cannot hide the laet that this (lire stale of affairs has only been made possible by subjecting the German people to an increasing and intensifying economic stress and hardship which are more than beginning to tell their tale. Something of the facts is brought out in a half-yearly bankill"' report on the economic situation in Greater Germany mentioned in a dispatch from the Berlin correspondent ol the London “Times.” The report shows, the correspondent states, that, the German nation, despite the incorporation of the Czech and other territories, has exhausted its labour reserves. Germany (he says) with declining exports, and a heavy agricultural' deficit, is making an effort to maintain her armament production and regain foreign markets, but since all reserves of labour and plant are fully employed, a vital increase in production can be achieved only by raising the productive capacity of the workers and by plant rationalisation. Already overworked and underfed, the German people are being asked to incur new hardships ol ellort and deprivation in order that their masters may ever more effectively threaten world peace and stability. It is plain enough to any dispassionate observer that the German people are already victims of the aggression that has in a measure imposed its will on the world without and is now seeking' to impose it further. The inward-facing line of the b’uehrer's guards is carrying out its appointed task meantime only too well, whatever' may be the prospects ol' German aggression as it looks abroad. The common interest in which BHtain. France and other nations are declaring themselves united is as definitely that of the German nation. It is because the German people are enslaved victims of aggression that the peace of the whole world is menaced.